Dare-devil biker defies `death' at 102 km/hr

bangalore: mumbai to bangalore in 11.46 hours! are you kidding? no, if you happen to be prakruthi banwasi, the dare devil biker who in the course of his journey escaped ``certain death'' thrice. at a time when chicken hearted non-achievers strut around with their noses up in the air, banwasi has showed what true guts was all about. ``imagine, a train takes 24 hours to cover the distance.i think it's a waste of time.'' he whizzed past umpteen number of vehicles on the national highway in 11 hours and 46 minutes flat on a four-stroke suzuki fiero, throwing caution to the wind. with this banwasi has broken his own record, a seventh successive time. after reaching bangalore, he rushed to kannada movie star dr rajkumar's house for blessings. he took off from dadar in mumbai at 5 am and reached bangalore at tea time! surprisingly, prakruthi was energetic even after the gruelling ride. ``the ride was cool, just that i had a couple of minor injuries,'' he said, pointing out to the bruises on his elbow. ``the only disappointment was that i wasted about half an hour as i entered pune city instead of taking the byepass road.'' he is said to have maintained an average speed of 105 km per hour. prakruthi was full of praise for his bike. ``the bike performed extremely well. i was slightly over-confident and tried some stunts. i could even see fire sparks behind me,'' said the adventurist. so who is to vouch for his adventure? ...he pulled out petrol bills from karad, hubli and tumkur, where he had filled his fuel tank. the day's diet included two chapatis, carrot, beetroot and tomato juice, he said. ``and i did not feel that tired. all thanks to santhosh and anu of figurine fitness, the aerobic centre on m.g. road. their training came in handy.'' on receiving him, rajkumar said, ``i am proud of prakruthi. it's the age that brings out such passion. i for one can only pose as a hero.'' on completion of the trip, the tvs group handed over the keys of the bike to him, congratulating prakruthi. the company will sponsor prakruthi for another ride in 15 days.